The present invention relates to a technique for fleet management. The present invention is illustrated as an example with regard to a technique for computer aided dispatching of a fleet of vehicles by way of a map presented on a display, but it will be recognized that the invention has a wider range of applicability. Merely by way of example, the invention can be applied to other types of transportation, mapping, and the like.
As the world has become more industrialized and populated, transportation requirements also have increased rapidly. In particular, the number of vehicles such as automobiles, trucks, vans, and the like on typical city highways has increased to levels such that traffic jams are now a way of life for a typical driver using these highways as a means for travel. In fact, some of these highways are so constricted that anyone using them can experience significant delays often unexpectedly due to problems such as accidents, road construction, and others. These problems also exist on other transportation ways such as our city streets, airways, and waterways. Accordingly, it is often difficult to predict with any accuracy the location of a vehicle using these transportation ways.
Cities and governments have attempted to resolve some of these problems by adding more transportation infrastructure to highly populated areas. This infrastructure often comes in the form of improved roads or highways, train systems, and the like. Unfortunately, roads, highways, and train systems are often difficult to build in highly populated areas and are generally extremely expensive and time consuming to build. In most cases, construction used to provide this additional infrastructure often causes even more traffic congestion and other problems.
Based upon this state of the transportation infrastructure in most industrialized countries, it is often difficult for a company involved in transportation services such as courier services, long haul trucking, air freight, etc. to accurately track its vehicles and deliveries. The problems mentioned above severely limit the predictability for a fleet manager to track vehicles in its fleet for the pick-up and delivery of information, packages, and people.
Industry also has attempted to resolve some of these problems. For instance, some companies are now providing their drivers with cellular phones and radios so that the dispatcher can communicate with them. Other companies retrofit their vehicles with navigational systems such as LORAN or a global positioning system (GPS) to determine vehicle location. Still other companies are using maps and GPS to track vehicle location by dispatchers at a central office terminal.
One such company is Mobile Information Systems, Inc. ("Mobile Information Systems"), assignee of the present application, which pioneered a technique for implementing easy-to-read maps for tracking vehicle location on a display or workstation at the central office terminal or any terminal. In particular, Mobile Information Systems implemented one of the first techniques for using a raster-type map and vector data for referencing vehicle location. The raster-type map used on a display had features that were easy-to-read for a dispatcher or user. These features were generally geographical in nature and were easier to reference than the maps made using predominantly stick-type representations of geographical features. The techniques used by Mobile Information Systems have partly overcome some of the daily problems faced by a fleet manager or the like. It would, however, be desirable to develop other techniques for integrating further aspects of fleet management.
Based upon the above, it would be desirable to develop techniques for further improving the predictability, efficiency, and accuracy of fleet management or tracking any object that can be transported into our roadways, highways, waterways, airways, and the like.